Lesh Is More

Grateful Dead - Stronger Than Dirt, or Milkin' the Turkey pt. I

I have a whole bunch of stuff happening for the end of the month, but I'm sliding this in today to memorialize a dearly departed who left this world at age 84 a few days ago.

People seem extra broken up over this event, even though the guy in question lived to be very old after a world-altering life.

Full disclosure moment: I -- for the most part and maybe exempting parts of 1970, all of Spring 1977, and today's share -- cannot stand The Grateful Dead.

That aside, I strive on this page to spread the love around and even occasionally work on stuff I feel will be in the best interest of people other than myself.

That aside times two, like I said today's thing is easily one of my favorites of their galaxy.

Obviously Phil Lesh is as beloved a musician as will exist in our rapidly-shortening lifetimes, and there's little need to drill down into The Dead and why they occupy the space they do in the culture of the last 60 years.

You'd have to have been living a hundred thousand miles beneath the surface of the Earth during those decades to have missed their impact, as significant and lasting as any band that will likely ever be.

For my part, I probably enjoy Phil's wild collaboration with electronicist Ned Lagin called Seastones the most.

The Dead did a weeklong run at Winterland 50 years ago this month, where this piece was played several times in a more improvisational concert setting.

The bonus track I have here is me, combining four different takes of Seastones to play simultaneously, so I apologize if it's a bit heretical to the original, but I thought it worked incredibly well, so it's included.

What it's included with is a performance that sees The GD get as close to the Miles Davis Electric Period as they maybe ever got.

The show -- a benefit for SF schools that Jerry Garcia talks about in the interview segment here -- is kind of a living legend among GD lore, and I've remastered it to get it boppin' as best as I could do from the original pre-broadcast reel.

The encore comes from an FM capture, as no preFM source of that apparently exists.

So here we are, in honor of the passing of this bass icon.... now let's ALL have a delicious S.N.A.C.K.

Grateful Dead & friends

S.N.A.C.K. (Students Need Athletics, Culture & Kicks) Benefit

Kezar Stadium

San Francisco, California USA

3.23.1975

01 introduction by Bill Graham

02 Blues for Allah pt. I

03 Stronger Than Dirt, or Milkin' the Turkey pt. I

04 Drums

05 Stronger Than Dirt, or Milkin' the Turkey pt. II

06 Blues for Allah pt. II

07 FM chatter

08 Johnny B. Goode

09 K101-FM interview with Jerry Garcia

10 A Symphony of Simultaneous Seastones (bonus track)

Total time: 1:16:52

Jerry Garcia - guitar & vocals

Phil Lesh - bass & vocals

Bob Weir - guitar & vocals

Mickey Hart - drums

Bill Kreutzmann - drums

Keith Godchaux - keyboards

Merl Saunders - keyboards (Tracks 02-06 & 08)

Ned Lagin - keyboards & electronics (Tracks 02-06, 08 & 10)

Tracks 01-06: S.N.A.C.K. Benefit  Kezar Stadium, SF CA 3.23.1975 K101-FM preFM reels

Tracks 07-09: same as above, off-air cassette FM capture of indeterminate origin; probably the master

reassembled, edited & remastered by EN, October 2024

Track 10: Phil Lesh, Ned Lagin & Jerry Garcia, Winterland SF 10.16-20.1974

(four performances of Seastones at once! assembled & edited by EN, October 2024)

496 MB FLAC/direct link

Again: don't be mad, Deadhead purists... I really thought my little Seastones Symphony went well with the S.N.A.C.K. thing, so that's why they are here together at the wake.

OK? I shall return before October ends with a bit more, but I saw so many people online, grieving so hard for Phil Lesh, that I thought I'd concoct a worthy tribute on here to him.--J.

3.15.1940 - 10.25.2024